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Created: July 13, 2003
Latest Update: July 13, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Values and Our Allegiance to Them

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, July 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This essay is based on a book review in the New York Times on Sunday, July 13, 2003: Absolutely American: Culture War at West Point By David Lipsky, an editor for the Rolling Stones. David Brooks, a senior editor for the Weekly Standard, wrote the review.

First of all, I was surprised to find myself reading about West Point. Secondly, I was surprised to be reading a review by a senior editor for the Weekly Standard. What is the Weekly Standard? A major conservative newspaper. Why does that matter? Well, I'm kind of frenetically opposed to conservatism, as I'm frenetically opposed to Bush. These aren't people I'm going to agree with on truth claims very often. But the review was good, and I kept reading. There's really no excuse for refusing to listen to the opposition. They're smart, too, at least lots of them are, and we need to stretch the corners of our minds. So I was delighted to read of Lipsky's new book:

" 'The result is ''Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point,' a superb description of modern military culture, and one of the most gripping accounts of university life I have read.

Sometime during his stay, he realized that 'of all the young people I'd met, the West Point cadets -- although they were grand, epic complainers -- were the happiest.' 'The academy, he found, was 'a place where everyone tried their hardest. A place where everybody -- or at least most people -- looked out for each other. A place where people -- intelligent, talented people -- said honestly that money wasn't what drove them. A place where people spoke openly about their feelings and about trying to make themselves better.''

Hey, I'd kind of like that group, too. Brooks made me want to read Lipsky's book. I linked to the First Chapter below on the New York Times. Maybe you'd like to read it, too.

" Lipsky follows several cadets and faculty members through their years at the academy, and their stories are the most powerful parts of this book."

I agree. The stories sound good. Perhaps I'll find one that works for our lived experiences. I'm not sure anyone could ever convince me that the West Point training is something I would have enjoyed. But I can see that others might. Brooks recounts a little of the story of "Lt. Col. Hank Keirsey, a career officer who is, as Lipsky's tale begins, chief of military training:"

" He is, in other words, the personification of huah, which is the romantic warrior code of George S. Patton put into verbal form. As Lipsky writes: ''Huah is an all-purpose expression. Want to describe a cadet who's very gung-ho, you call them huah. Understand instructions, say huah. Agree with what another cadet just said, murmur huah. Impressed by someone else's accomplishment, a soft, reflective huah.' "

You know, I seem to recall that term having been used by Robert De Niro in Scent of a Woman, and wondering what on earth it meant. The armed services seem still to be a place to which one can develop a real sense of belonging, even the "misfits." Of course, there is an imminent danger that where there is such intensity of commitment that one can lose perspective. One can become certain that one is "right," and in this 21st Century, there is little to substantiate any given "right" or "wrong." Ethics are complex in these complex times. It may be soothing to adopt the arrogance of certainty, but it is dangerous. And will the ones who don't quite fit value their quasi belonging even more, as research has shown us that we value more an organization which we had to struggle to enter? That's probably one plausible explanation of why hazing is always such a problem. Sometimes commitment and belonging outpace common sense and morality.

We're going to look at such issues in a variety of areas. Racism. Belonging to a racial or an ethnic community can provide a communal core of security and status. But if the community is a white community committed to persecuting racial minorities, there is fully as much for us to fear and regret as there is to be proud of. Same could be true of a gang in a local suburb or an inner city neighborhood. Same could be true of religious affiliation. It doesn't take much for humans to recognize the benefits of privilege and to begin excluding Others.

In this same weekly issue, we look at the brights, who ask only to be accepted as believing in secularism and not accepting life after death and God in the traditional sense. We in the US are singularly intolerant of anyone who does not share our particular beliefs. Just think about how us "peaceniks" feel about West Point, and here we are learning that West Point is complex, too.

We need to remember to stay open to all perspectives that may make truth claims as members of our group. Sometimes it will be the army, sometimes the navy, sometimes gangs, sometimes local ethnic groups, sometimes "brights." All deserve our respect and our effort to understand their validity claims in good faith. Sounds like Absolutely American might be a good read in that respect.

References

• First Chapter of Absolutely American
• The Weekly Standard.
• Rolling Stone.

Discussion Questions

1. What is so remarkable about the fact that the author of the book is an editor of Rolling Stone and the author of the review is a senior editor of the Weekly Standard?

   Consider the two papers, magazines, by appearance alone. Link to them above if you've never done so before. Which magazines and newspapers do we usually read? I tend to choose ones where I assume the editors will have ideas and opinions I can live with comfortably.

2. Would you normally expect me to recommend a book on West Point? Why?

   Consider that this site is dedicated to peace and social justice. Do peace groups and the armed forces often see eye to eye?

3. Do we deprive ourselves of useful information in the way we choose our reading?

   You bet. We tend to close ourselves off and not consider new perspectives.

4. Why do you suspect that the stories are the strongest feature of the book cited by David Brooks?

   Consider that lived experience, narrative, art, music, poetry make the Other more human, more like us, less Different, less Other. We can find in specific details or accoutrements of the Other's life, some of the same feelings and ritual behaviors and embarassments and disappointments and strivings from our own lived experience.